week 21

I think you'll all enjoy this one.

(Do any of you fellow bloggers know how I can move these videos a bit to the left so that the whole thing is centered properly?)

lewis on the train

I've spent a significant portion of time this past week riding the train back and forth to South Auckland.  The train is definitely not the quickest or most efficient way to get to South Auckland but it provides some interesting views of the city as well as a good chunk of time to sit and read.  Riding back and forth yesterday I took God in the Dock by C.S. Lewis with me.  I love to read and re-read Lewis' works.  I find him to be insightful, profound, practical, and witty; and even when I don't agree with him he always forces me to pause and think.  Here are some snippets from yesterday's train reading:

"The hard sayings of the Lord are wholesome to those only who find them hard."

"An egg which came from no bird is no more 'natural' than a bird which had existed from all eternity.  And since the egg-bird-egg sequence leads us to no plausible beginning, is it not reasonable to look for the real origin somewhere outside the sequence altogether?  You have to go outside the sequence of engines into the world of men, to find the real originator of the Rocket.  Is it not equally reasonable to look outside Nature for the real Originator of the natural order?" 

"Praying for particular things', said I, 'always seems to me like advising God how to run the world.  Wouldn't it be wiser to assume that He knows best?'  'On the same principle,' said he, 'I suppose you can never ask a man next to you to pass the salt, because God knows best whether you ought to have salt or not.  And I suppose you never take an umbrella, because God knows best whether you ought to be wet or dry.'  'That's quite different,' I protested.  'I don't see why,' said he.  'The odd thing is that He should let us influence the course of events at all.  But since He let's us do it in one way I don't see why He shouldn't let us do it in another.' 

week 20

So, we've got our internet back after a week of no service.  My apologies for missing week 19 but hopefully the fact that I'm posting a video this week will appease those of you (grandmothers!) who were disappointed by the lack of new pics last week.  

The video is my first attempt with the Handycam and I'm totally breathing into the microphone.  Other than that it's a pretty cute (I'm not biased at all) video of Brooke and I waking Sophia up from a nap.  She doesn't do any talking in this but if you listen carefully you'll notice that she does indeed make some audible contributions, one that seems to surprise even her.

new theme song

I know it released sometime around last September, but I've just recently caught wind of Snow Patrol's single "Take Back the City."  Besides being a catchy tune I think it might be my new theme song for church planting in central Auckland.  I'm not able to embed the video on the blog but you can check it out here or here.

I'm sure the band didn't have my interpretation in mind when they wrote the song but the following lyric snippets get to the heart of urban church planting.  

It's a mess, it's a start
It's a flawed work of art
Your city, your call
Every crack, every wall
Pick a side, pick a fight
Get your epitaph right

Tell me you never wanted more than this
And I will stop talking now
One perfect partner, one eternal kiss

For every time it's been hit
Take back the city tonight

I love this city tonight
I love this city always

telecom = sucky service!

Our internet has been down since last Tuesday. Telecom will give me no word as to when it will be up. That means we've only got sporadic internet access when we are out at places where we can connect or if we pay for it at an internet cafe. It also means we'll probably be switching web providers very soon. Sorry, no Sophia pics for last week. I'll try to make up for it next week assuming things are up and running again.

hills and hills and hills

One of the nice things about the place we're renting is that it's fairly centrally located within Auckland.  This means we can walk to most places we need to go.  From our home it's only about a 12 minute walk to my office, a 15 minute walk to the Skytower, and anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes to pretty much any other place we might need to go in the city.  This is something we're really excited about as it will help us to save money on petrol and get to know our city better, to understand it's places and contours in an up close, personal manner.  

Speaking of contours though, a downside of our current location is that we're literally on the downside of everything.  Almost every single place we might need or want to walk is uphill from our house.  Even getting to the few places that are downhill from us usually requires going uphill first.  This is one of the results of Auckland's quite turbulent geothermal and tectonic history.  Some of the hills around us have slight, gradual inclines and others are definitely less gradual, either way though it's all uphill for us.  

Practically for me this means I'll be walking at least 12 minutes uphill and 12 minutes downhill almost every day.  Right now that's a rather tiring endeavor since I've gotten pretty out of shape since Sophia was born.  Hopefully though  it means in a year I'll be in much better shape from my daily commute alone.  With this in mind, and out of curiosity, I'm posting pictures that Brooke took of my calves today.  A year from now I'll post some "compare and contrast" photos to see if this daily hill trek does me any visible good.

week 18 (late once more)

So, the weekly pictorial Sophia update is a day late once again.  I'm still trying to get the painting done in the office before our stuff arrives.  That combined with other responsibilities and daily life has meant fewer pictures and me being too exhausted last night to post them.  Actually, considering the fact that I didn't get back from painting the office until around 3AM this morning it's kinda surprising that I'm getting these pics up so soon.  Anyway, better late again than never.